Crowd: Thanks for tuning in to the Sandals Church podcast. Our vision as a church is to be real with ourselves, god, and others. We're glad you're here, and we hope you enjoy this message.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: Hi, guys. Welcome to Sandals Church, and we are starting a new series today called Miracles. And I am so glad that you guys are here and I'm believing and and I just am trusting that God is gonna do something miraculous in your life and in everybody's life that you invite to church for this series. So I love games. I love playing games.
My wife and I would love to play games. And so we're gonna start off with a little game today and I just want you to indulge me. And so what I want you to do is I want you to look around the room if you're watching from home, look around your house and I want you to count every time you see the color brown. Okay? This should help you right now.
Like hopefully you get at least 1. Okay? I want you to look around and so, I love staring at people. So this is your opportunity guys to stare at gals in church. Okay?
Just look around. Right. Right? Look appropriately stare but look around and and how many places do you see the color brown? Okay?
Now, I want you to close your eyes. Close your eyes. Don't cheat. Close your eyes. How many places did you see the color orange?
Now open your eyes. Now look for orange. Okay? If you can't see it, it's right here in front of you. Here's what I want you to know, As human beings, we are designed to see what we're looking for.
And we ignore what we don't. This series is about everyday miracles. They happen everyday and some of you are gonna say, well Pastor Matt, I've never seen them. I've never seen one. They've been right in front of your face your entire life.
Crowd: Yes.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: Now how many of you when you were looking around for brown you're like, okay, okay, okay. Right? Pastor Matt's jacket, it's brown. His hair, kinda brown, kinda gray. Like you started cheating, right?
You start start counting tan, you know. And some of you maybe at home, you saw a piece of wood. Right? You start looking for it and you start seeing it everywhere when you're looking for it. But when you're not, even if it's right in front of your face, you don't see it.
And that's the problem with miracles and there's so many people in your life, your neighbors, your family, your friends, your coworkers, they don't believe in the miraculous and it's because they're not looking for it. So last week was a special week for me. We had my niece who actually is in chapter 4 of this book. I haven't seen her in years And she actually came to church, not by my invitation or design, but she was in church last week as we talked about her story. And one of the most amazing things was we were celebrating my wife's 50th birthday party and she was able to be there.
As I'm telling her the story of the miracle in her own life, she doesn't remember it because she was 8 weeks old. You know what I'm saying? But I was there and I remember it. So here's what I want you to know during this series. The messages are gonna be your journey.
The books are gonna be our journey. So don't miss out on this and we're gonna do a little something different. Usually what I do is I preach a sermon and then the small group questions, the community group questions are based upon my sermon. But what we're gonna do in this series is they're based out of the book. So you're gonna need to be with somebody with the book in order to go over the questions.
But we wanna be doing 2 journeys. 1, what is God doing on the weekends? We believe God's gonna move on the weekends and that's one thing. And then what is God gonna do through the book? So let's start with the message today.
God's miraculous power, listen to this, is greater than what I will ever face. I don't know what you're facing today. I don't know what you're going through today. But I want you to know this that God's miraculous power is greater than what you face. Amen.
We're in the book of Daniel and I love the book of Daniel and I want you to hear me on this. Every time before God moves in the bible there are miracles. When God brings the people out of Egypt, what happens? Miracle after miracle after miracle. God does miracles to move people.
And then God wants to call a king, a king. A man after his own heart. God gives the miracle of strength to David. To over power a bear and a lion. And then the people of God sin and they forget God and they fall away from God and they're carried off into Babylon as slaves.
And god gives 4 young men miraculous power. Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
Crowd: That's right.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: Before there is a movement of god, there are always miracles of god. When Jesus comes to earth, what's the first thing he does? He does miracles. Before he was ever known to the world as messiah, he was known as the miracle man. And unfortunately for some of us as Christians, we flip that.
We know him as messiah but we have forgotten him as the man of miracles. And some of you been raised in church where you say, oh well god did miracles then but he doesn't do them now. The reason we're starting in the old testament is because I want you to know that God has always done miracles.
Crowd: That's right.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: He didn't stop, he didn't start, he That's who he is. He is he is a god of the miraculous. Right. And so no matter what you're facing today, god's miraculous power is greater than whatever you're facing. In Daniel chapter 3 verses 1 through 6 we look at an incredibly enormous giant.
King Nebuchadnezzar made a gold statue 90 feet tall. For Lakers fans, that's 12.2 Shaquille O'Neills. Okay? 12.2 shacks. That's how tall it was.
And it was 9 feet wide. That's wider than Shaquille O'Neal is tall. And he set it up on the plain of Babylon. And then he sent messages to all the high officers and the officials, the governors and the advisors, the treasurers, the judges. Do you get it?
The magistrates, everybody in all the provinces. For all the officials to come to the dedication of the statue he had set up. And so all these officials came and stood before the king. That Nebuchadnezzar had stood up and then a herald shouted out. Right?
They didn't have Twitter. He would have tweeted it. The heralds shouted it out. Peoples of all races, all nations and all languages listen to the king's command. You see this is a change in culture and in law.
Babylon was a multicultural city with multiple religions, multiple people groups, and multiple gods. And they were existing together kind of like America, but there was a change. We're not gonna let you worship any god, you gotta worship this thing. Listen to the king's command. When you hear the sound of the horn, the flute, I don't know what a zither is, okay?
I don't know what a zither is. A leer, harp, pipes, and other musical instruments bow to the ground to worship King Nebuchadnezzar's gold statue. Anyone who refuses to obey will be immediately thrown into a blazing furnace. Man, listen to me today. You may have cancer, but you can never bow to cancer.
Crowd: That's right. Amen.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: You may be depressed, but I wanna challenge you today, don't bow to your depression. You may need money today, but you can never bow to money. You may face pressure, but you can never bow to the pressure. Man, we live in a culture where the culture has one god and it's not the true god and it's not a gold statue. It's just peer pressure.
Whatever they say, right? What they've decided and you know how ridiculous it is. And I don't mean any offense, but there are boys and there are girls. That's what there is. And we all know it, but political pressure is forcing us to say things and do things we do not believe and we know that are not true.
But what are people doing? They're bowing because they care about their career. They care about their followers. I had a a gal this week text me. She said, I posted your book and I lost 220 followers.
Because the world will follow you until you actually stand for something.
Crowd: And then
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: when you stand for something, you're gonna lose a follower. And here's the thing as Christians, we're not called to gain followers. We are called to be a follower.
Crowd: Amen. Amen.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: And so everybody bows. Everybody, all the kings, all the all all all of the most important people, powerful people, brilliant people, everybody bows at a stupid statue. They know it's not God, but they bow to it like it's like it's god. But 3 guys don't. 3 guys don't.
And if you're a teenager here, let me tell you something. When you go to your high school, you're pressured everyday to bow to anything and everything, but the one true god. Right. If you're in college, your professors are gonna challenge your faith. They're gonna come after your faith, and they're gonna challenge you to bow to anything and everything but the one true God.
And And here's what I want you to hear me if you're a young person today. These 3 young people changed the history of the world. Their names were Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. We talk a lot about racism in our country and America has had all kinds of racism but I want you to know Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are not their real names, it's their slave names.
Crowd: That's right.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: It's not the names their mama gave them, it's the it's the name their owners gave them. That's right. Here's what I want you to understand. There's nothing that can hold you back. Not racism, not sexism, not any ism as long as you are following the one true God.
When you stand for him, he will stand with you. So Shadrach, his real name is Hananiah. Listen to this. Hananiah means God shows grace. Amen.
Anybody need grace today? Man, I do. Meshach, His real name is Michelle, meaning who is God? And then the last guy, Abednego. His real name is Azariah.
Listen to this. It means God has helped. Now listen to this. You know what miracles are? Miracles reveal god's grace.
Miracles show how god can help. Miracles reveal who god is. Get it? Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. From the day that they were born, they were created to show the world who god is and listen to me and how god can help.
How God can help. Look, your neighbors, your friends, your family members, they may not be interested in worshiping God, but if they're hurting, if they're hopeless, if they need a miracle, do you know what? They're gonna be open to his miraculous power.
Crowd: That's right.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: And don't judge them. Because before Jesus died for the sins of the world, he fed 5,000 hungry people. Jesus was willing to meet needs and do miracles to get attention so he could save souls.
Crowd: That's right.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: And I truly believe in California, and I know some of you, you you don't listen from California, but man, California needs a movement of God. Amen. And they're not interested in heaven and they're not interested in hell. In the last 20 years, I've never done a funeral where somebody's like, yeah, he's in hell. It doesn't even exist anymore.
Everybody goes to heaven. Dogs go to heaven, right? Nobody's interested about eternity anymore, but let me tell you something, people are interested when they're suffering, when they're suffering. And here's the thing, God's miraculous power is greater than anything that you face. So how do we experience miracles?
How do we experience them? Miracles from God, listen to this, begin with devotion to God. Everyone in the nation bowed, but 3 young men. Faithful believers who stood. Can I ask you, what are you standing for?
What are you standing for? And we got a lot of Christians today, you know, they think they're persecuted everywhere, you got your Starbucks order wrong, you know, like, okay, Satan, not today. Not today. But here's the thing, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, they did everything they could to be good Babylonian citizens. They did everything good, but here's the thing, when they could not worship something other than God, they said, okay, that's too far.
I wanna ask every one of you as a Christian, where's your line? Where's your line? Because convictions are dangerous things.
Crowd: That's right.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: Convictions are the things that we're willing to die for. But true miracles of God, true miracles of God begin with a devotion to God. Amen. So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Right?
Anybody got a teenager? You know these people. They're not listening. They're defiant. We're not bowing.
See, there is a use for teenagers. Amen? The rest of us were like, yeah, we need to. Okay. Then Nebuchadnezzar, he heard about these 3 individuals.
He had handpicked them. He had hand oversaw them. He had elevated them. He had promoted them. They were treated like wealthy individuals.
Nebuchadnezzar flew into a rage. Anybody been their parents? Yes. And he ordered that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego be brought before him. And when they were brought in, Nebuchadnezzar said to them, is it true Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?
Is it true that you refuse to serve my gods or or And you refuse to worship the gold statue that I've set up. He says, I'll give you one more chance. You've all done this, parents. Right? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and they know you're not following through.
Crowd: He says,
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: I'll give you one more chance. One more chance to bow down and worship the gold statue I've made. When you hear the sound of the musical instruments, you better do it. But if you refuse, listen to this, you will be thrown immediately into the blazing furnace. Listen to listen to this challenge.
And then what god will be able to rescue you from my power? Do you wanna know why you don't trust God? You don't believe God can rescue you. Here's what I want you to know about God. God is interested in an exclusive relationship.
Couple of weeks ago, we had John Bevere here and the most powerful moment was he talked about a relationship with God is God proposing to us and we're accepting. And he talked about a bride who accepted a guy's proposal and she said, I'm gonna be with you 360 days a year. Remember that? But 2 days a year, you know, I dated so and so in high school and I'm gonna sleep with him 2 days a year. Oh, and then my college sweetheart, man, we really had a thing.
So I'm gonna give 3 nights to him a week, but 360 days a year, you're my number one. And he said, what groom would accept that as his bride? The bible says you're God's bride, Jesus is the groom and he is not looking for a spouse that cheats. He's looking for a spouse that's faithful. In exodus 3414, this is in the Torah, the original 5 books of the bible.
You must worship no other gods. Listen. Why? Why? For the lord whose very name is jealous.
Wow. Is a God who is jealous about his relationship with you. You say, well, pastor Matt, I thought jealousy was wrong. Yeah. Unless it's something's yours.
Somebody tries to take my wife, amen, I get to go old testament. You know what I'm saying? Right? Come on.
Crowd: Do you
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: know why that is? She's mine.
Crowd: That's right.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: And she gets to go old testament on me if someone's trying to take me because I'm hers. You see jealousy is only a sin when you're jealous for something that's not really yours. God doesn't want you worshiping other things. And there's so many of you that call yourselves Christians but you worship other things. And you're like, well, I'm not sure God exists.
Can you imagine if your kids went to the neighbors? You're like, yeah, I don't think my parents are real. I think I just showed up here because or what if moms, your kids were like, you know what? I like the next door neighbor gal better. I wish she wasn't my mom.
Why? Because she lets me do what I wanna do. Oh, yeah. You see, all of us understand that from our perspective. So why don't we understand it from God's perspective?
Here's what I want you to know about miracles. This is so important. Miracles don't require faith in what God will do, but in what he can
Crowd: do. Amen.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: This is where I see so many Christians getting caught up, man. I don't know what God's gonna do. I don't know. Whenever I see God do a miracle there is no one more surprised than me. There is nobody more surprised than me.
I'm like, oh my gosh. And you want to know why I'm surprised because I know I don't have any power in me whatsoever to do anything. And I don't know what God's gonna do.
Crowd: That's right.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: But I know what he can do. Amen. I know what he can do. In Daniel chapter 3 verse 15 through 18 and you say, well Pastor Matt, if we're gonna do a a series on Jesus, a series on miracle, why are we in the old testament? Because I want you to learn from 3 teenagers, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
I want you to learn from their young faith so it can mature some of you in your old faith. He says, I will give you one more chance. One more chance to bow down to the statue that I have made when you hear the sound of the musical instruments. But if you refuse, you will be thrown immediately into the blazing furnace. And then what god will be able to rescue you from my power?
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied, oh, Nebuchadnezzar. We do not need to defend ourselves before you. For if we are thrown in to the blazing furnace, listen to this, the god whom we serve, never forget these words, is able.
Crowd: That's right.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: He's able to save us. Let's stop right there. Let's not move forward in the text. Let's pause right here. Man, if if if you are battling cancer, I don't know if God will cure your cancer.
That's not the question today. The question is, is he able?
Crowd: Yes. Come on. Yes.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: That's that's right there. If you don't believe he's able, you know what you're doing, you're not looking for 1.
Crowd: That's right.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: You're not looking for 1. Because if you don't believe he's able, what you're saying is there aren't, There isn't anything orange on the table. It isn't there. And here's the thing that I've learned, when I believe God is able to do miracles, I see more miracles. I see more miracles.
The god whom we serve is able to save us. And this is in every area of our lives. Some of you are struggling financially to trust the Lord. You see what tithing is? Tithing is, I believe God is able.
He's he's able to provide for me. And some of us believe that, some of us have experienced that, some of us are not there yet. Every single day is a practical test. Is God able? Is God able to protect me?
Is God able to look after me? Is God able to provide for me? They said, our God is able. We don't know what he will do but we know what he can do, oh king Nebuchadnezzar. And here's the thing, king Nebuchadnezzar knows what he can do because if you remember in the first chapter and the second chapter of the book of Daniel, he was having nightmares.
Anybody ever had a nightmare? Yeah. Oh, man. Those are crazy. He was having nightmares and nobody could interpret the dream, nobody understood the dream, but he went to his wise men, he said, hey I'm having nightmares.
He said, what is it? He said, I'm not gonna tell you. You gotta tell me what the dream is and then you gotta tell me the interpretation. He says, if you don't I'm gonna kill you. Apparently, you know, Nebuchadnezzar was kinda nasty.
And they said, well, there's this guy named Daniel who's been trained in the arts, and he can interpret dreams and they brought in Daniel and Daniel told him, you see the first part of his dream was he was having nightmares about a golden head. And what does he end up erecting? A golden statue. And Daniel told him, that gold statue is you. So he knew better.
He knew who this god was. He knew better than to mess with the god of Daniel, but what is he doing? He's messing with the god of Daniel. And I wanna challenge you guys. Don't mess with
Crowd: God. That's right.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: Don't mess with God. This week they were, you know, giving me a list of, all the potential TV shows I'm gonna be on. And I was super nervous because one of the proposed shows was The View. You know? And I don't mean I don't mean, you know, fun Whoopi Goldberg from the nineties.
That's not that's not who I, you know, that's that's not who I get. She's not funny anymore. She's just angry. And I was super, super nervous, and I was I was talking with one of my friends and he just challenged me. He said, Matt, all you gotta do is you gotta say, look, I prayed over a dead kid.
When all the doctors, anesthesiologists, and surgeons had given up hope. When I walked into the OR, there was a doctor screaming who threw a pen, he said call it He he said the effing kid and he didn't say effing. He said the effing kid is dead, call it. And we held hands. And when the best that medicine could do failed, I prayed in the name of Jesus and he he woke up.
And I don't mean like an hour later, I don't mean I mean And so here's what my friend challenged me. He said, you just look at Whoopi and you say this, I don't wanna make that god mad. Because I know he's real and I know he's alive. Amen. And I know we can make a difference.
And we may disagree on social issues. We may disagree on political issues, but I'm here to tell you Jesus lives and Jesus heals and Jesus can do miracles. Amen? But I found out that this week I'm probably not gonna be on that show, so that's a miracle. Amen?
That's a miracle. That's a miracle. The view is where men go to die. Right? Listen to this, but he will rescue us from your power.
Your majesty, but even if he doesn't, we want to make it clear to you your majesty. Christians, do you hear they're not disrespectful? For those of you who watch me on the debrief, whenever I'm talking about somebody that I disagree with, I try to be respectful and I try to honor them. Right. Our world is nasty, that's not god.
Crowd: That's right.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: They're talking to a man who knows who god is, who's telling them if they worship god in the way that they believe, they will be murdered and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are nice. Teenagers, write that down. That is a miracle. That is a miracle. You know, they weren't like, you know what?
Nebuchadnezzar, Nebi. No, they said, your majesty, your majesty, we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up. Man, this last week I was on a podcast and I was super nervous about it. How many of you guys have heard of a guy named Levi Lusko? Anybody heard of him?
I love him. And I was super nervous to talk about this book because do you know his story? Their 5 year old daughter died. And I just told him on the show, I said, hey, I'm super nervous because I know you guys went through a painful no. And I love what Levi said to me.
He said, Matt, we don't believe in miracles less. He said, we believe in miracles more.
Crowd: Amen. Come on.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: He goes, God may not have given us our daughter, but he revealed miracles to us that we didn't even think to ask for. I said, man, now you're preaching this book. You know what this book says? I cannot promise you the miracle you want. But I do promise you, listen to me, the miracle you need.
Crowd: Come on, somebody.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: And there's a huge difference between what we think we need and what God knows we need. And I I cannot say that I've been more blessed by someone than I was just by that. And he and his wife Jenny, they just said, tell us. Tell us about these miracles. Man, can I just tell you this?
Some of you at work, nobody's a Christian. You're the only Christian. You're made fun of. You're put down. I mean our daughter's been working in an industry where she's the only Christian.
And they figured out who I am and they make fun of her for that. And it breaks my heart. It hurts me. She's mocked. She's put down.
Because in her industry, there just aren't many Christians. And I told her the same thing I'm gonna tell you. I'm so sorry, honey, that you're being attacked for who I am and what you believe. Maybe God is just trying to teach you how to stand. Let me just tell you this.
Whenever you are attacked unjustly for doing the right thing, can I just tell you? You are making space for God to do a miraculous thing. Amen. Amen? If you're your only Christian at work, if you stay faithful to God, what if God's plan for you is for you not only to be the boss at work, but for one day you to become the owner at work?
That's the kind of stuff God does when we honor him. But when we take it into our own hands, when we reply back on Twitter, Oh, no you didn't, majesty. Right? When we got a fire back? I mean, when you're arguing with an idiot online, what does that make you?
I gotta set this fool straight. Good luck with that. Whenever you are persecuted, whenever people come at you for doing the right thing, you are making room for God to do his thing.
Crowd: Amen.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: But when you take it into your own hands, you're pushing god out. You know what a miracle is? A miracle is when you say, god, I I there's nothing I can do. I need you to move in this situation. Yeah.
Yeah. I need you to move.
Crowd: That's right.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: Man, some of you are battling in your marriage and there's no hope. What if you just said, god, we can't fix this.
Crowd: Could you help us? God, I don't
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: know how to pay the rent. I don't know where the money's coming from. I've done everything I can do, god. I'm ready to see what you can do. Amen.
God, no matter what I do at work, people make fun of me, they mock me, they put me down. God, I've done everything I know how to do. God, I need you to do what only you can do. That's right. You see, miracles happen.
Listen to this, when I trust God and this is the hard truth in the midst of my problems. Some of you, you're gonna come forward for prayer and I'm gonna say this each and every week, every prayer is answer. Don't tell me you didn't get an answer. Every prayer is answered with yes, no, or wait. And most of us will have to wait because the miracle we want is different from the miracle we need.
So if you're in the fire right now, if you're like last week, you're in the lion's den, look the only reason you're in the lion's den is because God has allowed you to be there. That's right. So learn whatever you can in this time. And let me say this, no time waiting on God is wasted time.
Crowd: Yes, yes.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: So king Nebuchadnezzar is so angry, right? He flew into a rage. He flew into a rage. Right? Teenagers can do that to you, amen?
Like you can lose it, you can lose it. I remember one time my kids were all teenagers well, 2 of them were teenagers and I lost it. You know, like was not like Jesus at all. Kicked one of my daughter's stuffed animals through the air and I looked out and we were having some yard work done at our church and all of the workers attended sandals. And I'm like, you know what?
Hey guys, how's it going? So embarrassing. So don't judge Nebuchadnezzar, you've been there. You've been there. So you know what he did?
He lost it? He lost his mind. He commanded the furnace to be heated 7 times hotter than normal. Wow. Like, we're not just gonna burn you.
I'm gonna turn you to ash. Anybody been there? Oh, yes. There will be pain and suffering. And then he ordered his strongest warriors.
You're not getting out of my hands. Right? He went for the navy seals. And he had them throw them into the furnace. And then here's the weird part, like, he really lost it.
This is one of the funniest part, like, when you read the bible, you're like, I'm not sure that this is true. There's just weird things in the bible where you're like, okay, nobody would have made that out. You know he fully dressed them? The funniest part is he made them wear their hats. I'm just like, that's okay.
Like, if I'm gonna go kill somebody, I'm not like, are you wearing your hat? Do you have your hat on? But you know what? When you read through the text, you make sure they had their their their clothes on, their belts on, their hats on. He wanted the world to know that they were fully Jewish and they were gonna lose.
Crowd: Come on. Come on.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: Oh, that was a mistake. Do you know that the fires were so hot that the soldiers who threw them in were killed by the heat? Oh, man. I don't know where you are today, but I want you to hear this. Daniel 324 through 26, But suddenly, Nebuchadnezzar, he jumped up in amazement.
Right? He's got them all dressed up. They're wearing hats. They're fully Jewish. His big buff yoke guys, his navy seals threw them into the fire.
They drop dead. They fall down into the fire, and apparently, there was a place where you could watch this go down. And he exclaimed to his advisors, he said, didn't we tie up 3 men? Didn't we tie up 3 men and throw them into the furnace? Like even if you're not great at counting, most of you can go 1, 2,
Crowd: 3.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: Yes, your majesty. Yes. We certainly did, they replied. Nebuchadnezzar says, look. Look.
Listen to me. He said, I see 4 men unbound, walking around in the fire, unharmed. So who could the 4th man be? Nebuchadnezzar says, and the 4th looks like a God.
Crowd: Come on, somebody. Amen. Wow.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: If you need a miracle today, maybe what you need is the 4th man in the fire. The 4th man in the fire. We sing that song, somebody like, I don't know who the
Crowd: 4th man is, I thought we were Christians. This song feels weird.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: I don't know. I don't know. This church does the Enneagram. I don't this this feels this feels dangerous. But Nebuchadnezzar, he came as close as he could to the door of the flaming furnace.
And I was at a wedding last week and I was standing underneath a heater, and my hairline is just retreating. Like, it's just it's just we've had enough. Like, we we've been here for 50 years, and it's over. Dude, I was like, you know, you ever been close to a heater and you're like, woah, I didn't, you know, it's I don't know what happened. Thank God we're not in the eighties anymore because women nowadays would just be gone, you know.
What happened to Sally? Well but he he gets he gets as close to the heat as he can. He's as close to heat as he can. And some of you've never felt a fire like this in your life. When I was in the military, I was trained in shooting an a t four rocket launcher.
And so we would shoot these at tanks and so I shot my a t four rocket launcher, I pulled that thing, I was pretty sure I was gonna hit the tank so I wanted to watch. I got helmet on, my goggles on and I'm watching and I just feel my sergeant's hand pull me down and right when he does like the the I mean my face would be gone. I would never have had eyebrows again. The Lord knew I needed the money maker for later. You know what I'm saying?
But it it was intense heat like nothing because this rocket launcher melts metal. And here's what we know about the Babylonians, they were at melting metal. That's how hot this fire was. That's right. And he can't even get close enough, but he shouts out Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego.
Listen to this. Servants of the most high God. Come out here. Come out here. Man.
Here's the thing, can I can I just can I be real with you guys? Just us girls, you know what I'm saying? No. Just it's just us. And you guys have seen this on social media already.
Like, people, we just need the bible, and we just need this, and why is another Christian book and and here's the thing, I believe this. More miracles happen when I share God's miraculous stories with others.
Crowd: Amen. That's good.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: This book is full of miraculous stories. Why is the book of Daniel so powerful? Because it was a story in their day and their age. But I believe God's not done. I've already seen what he's can he can do and I've written it down here, but I believe there's more to do.
And here's the thing, some of your friends, some of your family, they'll never read a bible. They're never gonna come to church, but they might read a book. They might read a book. Right. So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stepped out of the fire.
Then the high officers, the officials, the governors, the advisers, what is up with Babylon and titles? Right? They're just like, okay. Just say everybody. The advisers crowded around them and they saw the fire had not touched them.
Listen to me, sandals church. Miracles do not provide answers. They force people to ask bigger questions. What what on earth just happened? Not a hair on their heads was singed.
Their clothing was not scorched. Listen to this. They didn't even smell of smoke. Timmy and I went on a date last week and I had forgotten that I barbecued burgers, wore the same shirt, sat down for dinner, hoping for good things. She's like, did you barbecue?
Yes. You know, didn't forgot forgot to change my clothes. So when you barbecue, you stink. Guys, write that down. If you're praying for miracles, write that down.
Don't smell of burnt beef. It's not pleasant to the nostrils. So they're sniffing them. You don't even smell like you've been around smoke. Nebuchadnezzar said, praise to the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
He sent his angel to rescue his servants, listen to this, who trusted
Crowd: him. There
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: is no other God, listen to this, who can rescue like this. Do you know someone that needs a miracle? Where is your faith? If someone needs a miracle, what do you have to lose? I don't know what God will do but I know what he can do.
Crowd: Come on.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: I worship a God who rescues Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the fiery furnace And even if he does not rescue you from the fiery furnace, I worship a God who is in the heat with you. That's right. He's with you. So pray this week. Pray this week.
Is there someone, anyone that would be encouraged by this book? This book might bring somebody. I was just told by one of our pastors somebody showed up to talk about book today and they were, you know, worried like me when everyone was like, you wrote a book. I'm like, okay. Be gentle.
You know? Because we live in a culture that doesn't compliment, we criticize. That's our culture. That's just our culture. You know, people are just waiting to tell you you suck.
Have you noticed that? They're just like, not yet. Dang it. Tomorrow. That's our culture.
But they came by to say, look, I read chapter 1 and I don't even know who they who they are but they found our church and they said they stopped reading because there's a section where I say stop reading and start praying.
Crowd: Amen.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: And they told the pastor that they invited the Holy Spirit to change their life. Amen? So so the book, if you buy it, all the proceeds go to our youth group because youth camp is a bazillion dollars. Cannot control that. That would be a miracle.
Lower camp prices. I mean, literally, campus, like, $500 a kid. So if you're like us, you know, you're praying for a miracle in the summer when you had 3 kids go to camp. So But these are real stories. One of the one of the kids in our church that's in this book Let me show you the picture.
This is her. She posted this week. And you can't read it, but it says, my whole life is a miracle. Her story is in this book. When I saw that post, when I saw that picture, I remember praying over her and believing there was no hope.
There was no hope, so I texted her parents. I said, can I please share that in my sermon this week? She's reading a book about miracles in which she is a miracle in the book. So just ask yourself, who can I invite to talk about miracles? You've all got friends that ain't coming to church.
Can we just be honest? I know who you are. You're sinners. Okay? They're they're not somebody snorted.
That and they said that just that, like, man, that's when I know I'm preaching. Listen, we all have friends that are not coming to church. Let's just let's just be honest. I wish everyone would come to church. I believe the church is the hope of the world, but they might do a book club with you.
They might do a book club with you. And just ask them, hey, do you believe in miracles? Do you need a miracle? Have you ever heard of a miracle? One of the stories in this book, chapter 4, let me show you this next photo.
This is my my dad and that's his doctor. And I don't know if you can see, but his doctor just downloaded Everyday A Miracle. And here's why, Because one of the miracles that takes place in this book took place in his hospital. And he heard about it and he said, I wanna hear more about it. And he downloaded it.
My parents doctor, who provides healing for them, is interested if god still heals. K? They got their doctor to buy the book. Now now I know you're not my mom and dad, you know, if I, you know, if I was selling oranges, my mom would be like,
Crowd: our son
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: has the most beautiful oranges. So I get it. I get it. I know I know you're not my mom and dad, but listen to me. Remember your kids?
If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound? Not to anyone, unless they hear. I wanna encourage you. Let's start a revival in America. That Jesus still lives, he still heals, he still works, and he is the 4th man in the fire sandals church.
And he always will be and he will never change because he loves us. He absolutely loves us. Look, I love you this week. I love you. I'm praying for you.
I'm praying and believing for miracles. Amen. Each and every week, if you attend Sandals Church, I know many of you watch online. I just wanna encourage you. If you need a miracle, if you know somebody needs a miracle, come to church, come to a campus, and come forward for prayer.
Yeah. Because God moves when we move as a church. Yes. And we have amazing people in this church that are ready to pray for you right now.
Crowd: Amen.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: Let's pray together. Heavenly father, we pray in the name of Jesus. We pray for great things. We pray for miraculous things. God, we just admit right now there's nothing miraculous about this book, about our church, about me or any of us.
But there is everything miraculous about you Jesus. And this book, this series is about you and how you are the 4th man in the fire and you can heal us. And you love us and you are with us. Holy spirit, we just ask in the name of the risen living Jesus that you would do miracles in our church in this series. We pray this in Christ's name.
Amen.
Outro: Hey, Sandals Church. My name is McKay, and I'm our online youth lead for our online campus. I just wanted to let you guys know that we do have an option for anyone that wants to read along to Everyday A Miracle. If you send us an email at online at sandalschurch.com, we would love to connect with you and supply you with a book. If you are a regular giver to Sandals Church, this is one way that your giving is impacting all of our people, giving us the opportunity to supply books, the same way that we do at our campuses.
If you have not yet given, you can do so at give.sc. I love you guys. I'm praying for you. Have a blessed week.